ORLANDO–The Florida Baptist Historical Society has announced that Joel Breidenbaugh will be the recipient of the 2025 Baptist Heritage Award.
The Baptist Heritage Award seeks to recognize and honor those Florida Baptists who have exhibited rare and unusual dedication to the cause of Florida Southern Baptist history. Making a significant contribution can be made through such means as researching and writing Baptist history, teaching Baptist history, preserving Baptist history, and/or promoting the importance of Florida Southern Baptist history.
“In considering a potential candidate to be the 2025 Baptist Heritage Award recipient, the Society’s board of directors determined that Joel Breidenbaugh, for the past two decades, has demonstrated an unusual commitment to the teaching, researching and writing about Baptist history and related fields,” explained Donald Hepburn, managing director of the Florida Baptist Historical Society.
The award is slated to be presented during the annual meeting of the Greater Orlando Baptist Association Oct. 12.
Breidenbaugh has served as pastor of Gospel Centered Church, Apopka, since August 2017. During the past eight years he has led this congregation from a mission start to a fully functioning church with more than 100 persons in attendance each week. The church is involved currently in a building fund drive to underwrite the construction of the church’s first permanent facility.
In addition to his local church leadership, Breidenbaugh has been a teaching scholar since 2002, having served as a part-time classroom teacher and as an on-line professor. Those schools have included Liberty University’s School of Divinity, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Baptist University of Florida and Oklahoma Baptist University.
His subject matter expertise includes a range of disciplines: Baptist history, church history, New Testament, theology, preaching, church ministry and personal evangelism, among other topics.
As a writer, Breidenbaugh has prepared numerous articles for scholarly publications, including a regular series of articles for The Church Revitalizer E-Magazine. He has written more than a dozen topical articles for the Journal of Florida Baptist Heritage. In addition, he has written six articles, including biographical profiles on three historically significant Southern Baptists, which were included in the five-volume compendium, Encyclopedia of Christianity.
Breidenbaugh has earned three academic degrees, including the Bachelor of Arts from the Florida Baptist Theological College (now known as the Baptist University of Florida) as well as a Master of Divinity and Doctor of Philosophy from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
This year, he will conclude his service as chair of the Florida Baptist Historical Society’s board of directors, a position he has held since 2020.
Since 1997, 29 individuals have been conferred the Baptist Heritage Award by the Florida Baptist Historical Society. These persons represent a broad range of Florida Baptists including pastors, denominational workers, college and seminary professors, and laypersons, all of whom have demonstrated an interest and commitment to researching and publishing Florida Baptist history. The Florida Baptist Historical Society operates under the auspices of the State Board of Missions of the Florida Baptist State Convention, which appoints the Society’s board of directors.
